19. aug. 2003

Guardian's KICKAAS blog

The Guardian have launched a political blog called KICKAAS (for Kick All Agricultural Subsidies). Victor Keegan from the Guardian's Online team, and the man behind this initiative, writes:

"Bloggers have been trashed lately for being too parochial and introspective. In an attempt to hitch the medium to a global cause the Guardian (in an editorial) today is launching a political blog with one aim: the abolition of all agricultural subsidies."

Agendas aside, this initiative is quite interesting from a media perspective. The Guardian is definitely one of the (few) newspapers in the world who 'gets it' when it comes to running a serious web news site in combination with a traditional newspaper publishing business. Furthermore, they have been early adopters when it comes to weblogs, and have worked with the format from early on: they have simply understood the format as a new and effective platform for distribution of news and debate. Agenda-blogging this way, however, including the genuine indie-flavour of the whole thing, definitely seems like a next step.

(As for the actual agenda, kicking the agricultural subsidies, I'm pretty much in favor, even though I do not really have an informed opinion on the matter. This might change, though...)